Laurent Marissal - Cain - Exhibitionmfc-michèle didier | Paris - Brussels - PARIS
Exhibition from March 29 to May 11, 2019
Opening on March 28 from 6 to 9pm in presence of the artist
Also known under the pseudonym Painterman, the artist, born in 1970 in Paris, defines himself as a painter. If Laurent Marissal is a painter, he is nevertheless a painter who doesn't paint. It is necessary to distinguish Laurent Marissal the painter who recounts his actions, from Painterman, the painter who does the actions.
As soon as he left Paris School of Fine Arts, he was hired as a guard at the Gustave Moreau Museum, where he undertook to "paint in blue", thus designating all the clandestine actions carried out with art by an employee during his work hours, without his employer's knowledge: he turned his back on the public to read, turned over the guard's chairs, moved the objects, put his finger in the fresh painting of the museum under renovation...
So many actions pursued until the creation of a local trade union, used to the benefit of its pictorial actions: he questions working conditions, causes the museum's first strike, organizes a demonstration and restores a joint administrative commission. He obtains the reduction of working hours, the guardians resting space, and resigns after construction works. The narrative of these clandestine pictorial actions gives rise to the first opus of the Pinxit series, 1997-2003, published by Incertain Sens in 2006.
From 2005 to 2010, he continued his "painting in blue" as a professor of art history, putting his words into practice during the courses he diverted from their initial mission. Laurent Marissal confirms his position as a critical artist by using his working time to benefit his actions. This is how he scores his students at dice, or breaks a table during his presentation on a Fluxus performance.
In 2010, he made his metamorphosis visible by publishing:
Laurent Marissal alias Painterman, Pinxit (II) – Where the painting goes, to the editions Incertain Sens :
"Painting without painting ? Yes, the painter is a monkey if he limits himself to covering limited surfaces without painting the very space that separates him from the canvas, from the world. I cover up the so-called free time and transform suffered life into a compound life. Yes, life is mixed with painting, the thing is proven. I have the formula. I am now afraid to paint sitting like a caged bear".
Following a stay in Canada, Laurent Marissal founded NADA, a journal of non visible - not hidden actions, conceived as a workshop allowing him to experiment various aspects of his work; NADA defines himself as "episodic magazine, {which} depicts the pictorial actions, non-visible - non-hidden, carried out by Painterman alias Laurent Marissal in a hostile environment as in Arcadia."
His first exhibition at the mfc-michèle didier gallery reveals the first chapter of the next Pinxit issue, which will revisit the great figures from the myth of Cain. This myth inaugurates a new period in Laurent Marissal's painting. Cain, or more precisely the story of Cain and Abel, is one of the first founding myths of the Bible, but also a "founding work of the Western imagination" that refers to "the primordial time" and "fabulous beginnings", according to the historian of religions, Mircea Eliade1. Laurent Marissal's exhibition starts from this contradiction: Cain commits the first crime, by killing his brother Abel, but is also the founding father of Art thanks to the creation of the first city, Enoch, thus giving birth to civilization. Thanks also to descendants that would decline the arts and crafts, he then became the father of all the arts.
The myth of Cain can thus be considered as a model of the creative process: to negate nothingness... And let us see that from the transformation of the odious is born art, the city, civilization... The artist wonders: isn't the mission of art to free itself from the laws and ensure its freedom? And how can the artist build his own sovereignty?
Within the mfc-michèle didier gallery, this portrait of Cain will take the form of a visual poem, resulting in an Arabic and Hebrew translation engraved on a vinyl, accompanied by a journal. The NADA magazine will also be shown, in the form of a newspaper but also in the form of panels presenting the account of pictorial actions; drawings will also be presented; as well as non-aligned actions. The non-aligned actions (ana), which the artist has been developing since 2016, are conceived as a collective form of his pictorial actions. The ana is federated around the words and actions of artists, activists, workers, or scientists. A pictorial showcase associated with non-aligned actions will change each week with and according to the guests.
From 2005 to 2010, he continued his "painting in blue" as a professor of art history, putting his words into practice during the courses he diverted from their initial mission. Laurent Marissal confirms his position as a critical artist by using his working time to benefit his actions. This is how he scores his students at dice, or breaks a table during his presentation on a Fluxus performance.
Details of the talking circles program on Friday between 5pm and 7pm:
Friday, March 29, at 5pm: non-aligned action #17/A; "Si aucune prière ne te convient, invente-la", Saint-Augustin. With Emmanuel Duvshani (cantor), Mohammed Hamdouni (writer and translator), Javier Leibiusky (writer and translator), Marina Leli-Lili (laboratory assistant), Antoine Moreau (artist)
Friday, April 5, at 5 pm: non-aligned action #17/B; "Toute révolution est un coup de dés (II)", Jules Michelet. With Manola Antonioli (philosopher) and François Pain (filmmaker).
Friday, April 12, at 5 pm: non-aligned action #17/C; "C'est la terre que Dieu donna à Caïn", Jacques Cartier. With Anne Bertrand (artist), Laurent Buffet (art critic), Guillaume Clermont (artist), Jérôme Gontier (writer), Alain Deneault (philosopher), Pierre Déléage (anthropologist), Steve Giasson (artist), Denis Lessard (artist), Karen Elaine Spencer (artist), Patrice Loubier (art critic).
Friday, April 19, at 5pm: non-aligned action #17/D; "Faiseurs de sa parole, pour entendre la voix de sa parole". Psaume 108. With Jean-Charles Agboton Jumeau (art critic), Lefevre Jean Claude (artist), Fabrice Michel (artist), Hubert Renard (artist).
Friday, April 26, at 5pm: non-aligned action #17/E; "La pluie fait partie du procès, le vent fait partie du procès", Ezra Pound. With Pierre-Evariste Douaire (art critic, artist), Cindy Geraci (director of the Paris Musée du Barreau), Claude Rutault (artist), Pierre Escot (writer).
Friday, May 3, at 5 pm: non-aligned action #17/F; "L'Algérie marche dans nos rêves", Kateb Yacine, "How long, not long" Martin Luther King. With Dennis Adams (artist), Marc Garanger (photographer, to be confirmed), Sébastien Levassort (artist), Zalia Sékaï (author and lawyer) and Michèle Didier.
Friday, May 10, at 5pm: non-aligned action #17/G; "Il ne se donne point de visible sans moyen transparent", Nicolas Poussin. With Bertolt Brecht (writer-dramaturge), George Brecht (artist), Et n'est-ce* (artist).
Friday, September 7, at 7pm: non-aligned action #18; Caïn's seditions II, Jean-Charles Agboton-Jumeau, Laurent Buffet, Eugène Delacroix, Jean-Marc Esvan, Et n'est-ce*, Fabrice Michel, Javier Leibiusky, On Kawara, Marina Leli-Lili, Carole Marissal, Painterman, Zalia Sékaï.
1 Véronique Léonard-Roques, Caïn et Abel, Rivalité et responsabilité, éditions du Rocher, 2007, p.12
Exhibition from March 29 to May 11, 2019
Opening on March 28 from 6 to 9pm in presence of the artist
Also known under the pseudonym Painterman, the artist, born in 1970 in Paris, defines himself as a painter. If Laurent Marissal is a painter, he is nevertheless a painter who doesn't paint. It is necessary to distinguish Laurent Marissal the painter who recounts his actions, from Painterman, the painter who does the actions.
As soon as he left Paris School of Fine Arts, he was hired as a guard at the Gustave Moreau Museum, where he undertook to "paint in blue", thus designating all the clandestine actions carried out with art by an employee during his work hours, without his employer's knowledge: he turned his back on the public to read, turned over the guard's chairs, moved the objects, put his finger in the fresh painting of the museum under renovation...
So many actions pursued until the creation of a local trade union, used to the benefit of its pictorial actions: he questions working conditions, causes the museum's first strike, organizes a demonstration and restores a joint administrative commission. He obtains the reduction of working hours, the guardians resting space, and resigns after construction works. The narrative of these clandestine pictorial actions gives rise to the first opus of the Pinxit series, 1997-2003, published by Incertain Sens in 2006.
From 2005 to 2010, he continued his "painting in blue" as a professor of art history, putting his words into practice during the courses he diverted from their initial mission. Laurent Marissal confirms his position as a critical artist by using his working time to benefit his actions. This is how he scores his students at dice, or breaks a table during his presentation on a Fluxus performance.
In 2010, he made his metamorphosis visible by publishing:
Laurent Marissal alias Painterman, Pinxit (II) – Where the painting goes, to the editions Incertain Sens :
"Painting without painting ? Yes, the painter is a monkey if he limits himself to covering limited surfaces without painting the very space that separates him from the canvas, from the world. I cover up the so-called free time and transform suffered life into a compound life. Yes, life is mixed with painting, the thing is proven. I have the formula. I am now afraid to paint sitting like a caged bear".
Following a stay in Canada, Laurent Marissal founded NADA, a journal of non visible - not hidden actions, conceived as a workshop allowing him to experiment various aspects of his work; NADA defines himself as "episodic magazine, {which} depicts the pictorial actions, non-visible - non-hidden, carried out by Painterman alias Laurent Marissal in a hostile environment as in Arcadia."
His first exhibition at the mfc-michèle didier gallery reveals the first chapter of the next Pinxit issue, which will revisit the great figures from the myth of Cain. This myth inaugurates a new period in Laurent Marissal's painting. Cain, or more precisely the story of Cain and Abel, is one of the first founding myths of the Bible, but also a "founding work of the Western imagination" that refers to "the primordial time" and "fabulous beginnings", according to the historian of religions, Mircea Eliade1. Laurent Marissal's exhibition starts from this contradiction: Cain commits the first crime, by killing his brother Abel, but is also the founding father of Art thanks to the creation of the first city, Enoch, thus giving birth to civilization. Thanks also to descendants that would decline the arts and crafts, he then became the father of all the arts.
The myth of Cain can thus be considered as a model of the creative process: to negate nothingness... And let us see that from the transformation of the odious is born art, the city, civilization... The artist wonders: isn't the mission of art to free itself from the laws and ensure its freedom? And how can the artist build his own sovereignty?
Within the mfc-michèle didier gallery, this portrait of Cain will take the form of a visual poem, resulting in an Arabic and Hebrew translation engraved on a vinyl, accompanied by a journal. The NADA magazine will also be shown, in the form of a newspaper but also in the form of panels presenting the account of pictorial actions; drawings will also be presented; as well as non-aligned actions. The non-aligned actions (ana), which the artist has been developing since 2016, are conceived as a collective form of his pictorial actions. The ana is federated around the words and actions of artists, activists, workers, or scientists. A pictorial showcase associated with non-aligned actions will change each week with and according to the guests.
From 2005 to 2010, he continued his "painting in blue" as a professor of art history, putting his words into practice during the courses he diverted from their initial mission. Laurent Marissal confirms his position as a critical artist by using his working time to benefit his actions. This is how he scores his students at dice, or breaks a table during his presentation on a Fluxus performance.
Details of the talking circles program on Friday between 5pm and 7pm:
Friday, March 29, at 5pm: non-aligned action #17/A; "Si aucune prière ne te convient, invente-la", Saint-Augustin. With Emmanuel Duvshani (cantor), Mohammed Hamdouni (writer and translator), Javier Leibiusky (writer and translator), Marina Leli-Lili (laboratory assistant), Antoine Moreau (artist)
Friday, April 5, at 5 pm: non-aligned action #17/B; "Toute révolution est un coup de dés (II)", Jules Michelet. With Manola Antonioli (philosopher) and François Pain (filmmaker).
Friday, April 12, at 5 pm: non-aligned action #17/C; "C'est la terre que Dieu donna à Caïn", Jacques Cartier. With Anne Bertrand (artist), Laurent Buffet (art critic), Guillaume Clermont (artist), Jérôme Gontier (writer), Alain Deneault (philosopher), Pierre Déléage (anthropologist), Steve Giasson (artist), Denis Lessard (artist), Karen Elaine Spencer (artist), Patrice Loubier (art critic).
Friday, April 19, at 5pm: non-aligned action #17/D; "Faiseurs de sa parole, pour entendre la voix de sa parole". Psaume 108. With Jean-Charles Agboton Jumeau (art critic), Lefevre Jean Claude (artist), Fabrice Michel (artist), Hubert Renard (artist).
Friday, April 26, at 5pm: non-aligned action #17/E; "La pluie fait partie du procès, le vent fait partie du procès", Ezra Pound. With Pierre-Evariste Douaire (art critic, artist), Cindy Geraci (director of the Paris Musée du Barreau), Claude Rutault (artist), Pierre Escot (writer).
Friday, May 3, at 5 pm: non-aligned action #17/F; "L'Algérie marche dans nos rêves", Kateb Yacine, "How long, not long" Martin Luther King. With Dennis Adams (artist), Marc Garanger (photographer, to be confirmed), Sébastien Levassort (artist), Zalia Sékaï (author and lawyer) and Michèle Didier.
Friday, May 10, at 5pm: non-aligned action #17/G; "Il ne se donne point de visible sans moyen transparent", Nicolas Poussin. With Bertolt Brecht (writer-dramaturge), George Brecht (artist), Et n'est-ce* (artist).
Friday, September 7, at 7pm: non-aligned action #18; Caïn's seditions II, Jean-Charles Agboton-Jumeau, Laurent Buffet, Eugène Delacroix, Jean-Marc Esvan, Et n'est-ce*, Fabrice Michel, Javier Leibiusky, On Kawara, Marina Leli-Lili, Carole Marissal, Painterman, Zalia Sékaï.
1 Véronique Léonard-Roques, Caïn et Abel, Rivalité et responsabilité, éditions du Rocher, 2007, p.12
Exposed artworks
Journal of 40 pages with a 33 rpm vinyl in insert
19.69 x 13.39 in ( 50 x 34 cm )
Ink drawing on 300gr Arches paper
15.75 x 25.59 in ( 40 x 65 cm )
Unique artwork
ink drawing on 300gr Arches paper
15.75 x 25.59 in ( 40 x 65 cm )
Unique artwork
ink drawing on 300gr Arches paper
15.75 x 25.59 in ( 40 x 65 cm )
Unique artwork
ink drawing on 300gr Arches paper
15.75 x 25.59 in ( 40 x 65 cm )
Unique artwork